1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microwave susceptor packaged food items and more particularly to packaging individually portions of a whole food item with a related microwaveable susceptor material.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of food items has been packaged for sale with wrappers having microwaveable susceptor material included for facilitating microwave heating or cooking of the food items. Many types of microwaveable packaging materials are available for heating at different temperatures and used for different purposes. Some food packaging including microwaveable susceptor material are used for baking and others for making food items crispy. Most prior susceptor packaging has supported or enclosed an entire food item for heating. For example, whole frozen pizzas, situated on a sheet of susceptor material, and over-wrapped with a shrink film are being sold in supermarkets and convenience stores, from which a consumer may purchase the item and place it in a microwave oven for a recommended time to cook the topping and bake the crust. While this style of packaging is convenient, it often happens that a person cannot eat an entire pizza at a sitting resulting in the waste of the uneaten portion.
The prior art also teaches a perforated microwave susceptor material that is designed to be separated into segments approximating the size of the food item to be heated therewith. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,027 issued Dec. 17, 1996 to Young. The perforated microwave susceptor material is designed to be torn along the perforations to approximate the size of the food to be heated. However the food item must be cut by the user and placed on the susceptor material prior to placement in the microwave oven. This is inconvenient in that the size of the food item may not match the susceptor material for best results and further, the type of susceptor material may not match the type of cooking needed or produce the correct temperature required for proper cooking.
The invention relates to packaging for containing a food item, such as a frozen pizza, that has been divided into segments of a size and shape desired, and placed on correspondingly segmented susceptor material, which is of the proper size, shape type allowing all or a predetermined portion of the food item to be microwaved at a given time.
The food item is cut by the manufacturer into segments to be cooked and used at different times, or for faster service, one segment may first be heated in a microwave oven and served while the next portion is being heated. Because less than the whole is being microwaved, less cooking time is required for each segment.
Cutting the food items into segments is also useful for when a consumer only wants to eat a portion of the total purchased food item now and wishes to save the rest for later. The segmented packaging also facilitates sharing of the food item with another person.
The packaging arrangement of the present invention may be such that the segments of food items can be individually wrapped along with its susceptor, or one wrapper may be used to cover all the segments, or each individually wrapped and then over-wrapped as a unitary package.
The segmented food item may be reassembled with respective susceptors to approximate the look of the entire food item before being segmented. Thus in the case of a circular pizza that has been divided into two semicircular halves, the two halves on their individual susceptor trays can be over-wrapped with their diameters close together so that it is immediately recognized as a pizza. The susceptor material would then have adjacent adjoining segments, and if the susceptor material has walls surrounding the food item, wall portions maybe adjacent on adjoining segments.
The shapes of the food items can be rectangular, square, semicircular, or pie shaped. The related susceptor material should approximate the shape and size of the food item and be of the correct type for heating or cooking the food item properly.
It is an object of the invention to package a food item that has been divided into portions of a convenient size, each portion having its own individually microwaveable susceptor tray.
It is another object of the invention to provide a packaging arrangement for frozen food items to be prepared in a microwave oven in portions so that only a portion need be used at one time.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a packaged, frozen food item to be prepared in a microwave oven that allows a quicker preparation of a smaller segment of a food item for faster serving, and which may be consumed while a next portion is cooking.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a package in which an entire food item is partitioned into segments with the segments arranged to appear as an easily recognized unitary item.
It is an object of the invention to provide a packaging arrangement having individually wrapped segments of a whole food item, with an accompanying susceptor material, such that the individual segments can be microwave cooked and consumed at different times.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.